There will be no shortage of jokes about “Inside Job” opening at Halloween time, nor should there be. Here’s a real-life horror story with far more damaging consequences than anything Dracula ever did.
Director Charles Ferguson (whose “No End in Sight” examined the management of the Iraq War) has created a summary of the financial meltdown of 2008, and the astonishing mischief that caused the system to collapse.
If you’re a dedicated news consumer, some of this might be familiar. But even if you are, the array of information presented in methodical fashion will make you want to open a window and start screaming in the (apparently futile) hope of creating outrage about the people and policies that allowed this to happen.
Ferguson takes time to explain how certain crooked policies worked, so that those of us who took one economics class in high school can follow the diseased chain of events.
Therefore, you can see how Goldman Sachs figured out a scheme that would let them profit when stocks went up and profit when stocks went down. Sort of a perfect system, really, if you’re untroubled by things like ethics.
Throughout Ferguson’s argument, there’s an overwhelming sense of foxes being hired to guard chicken coops, a weirdly incestuous world that allowed these criminals to run rampant. And he carefully lays out how much money the people at the top received, staggering sums that were safely tucked away when companies began falling apart.
These charts and graphs are helpful, and the calm, steady voice of narrator Matt Damon builds the case. Ferguson gets some drama into the mix with his interviews, which become increasingly frustrated as the film goes on.
Some of the people who sat in front of his camera clearly had no idea what they were in for. Glenn Hubbard, chief economic adviser in the Bush administration and later dean of the Columbia business school, finally gets wise and orders Ferguson to wrap things up after admitting he had made a mistake in agreeing to the interview; more than one interviewee begins spouting non sequiturs while scrambling to explain bad behavior and conflicts of interest.
And Ferguson has two strong punches saved for the late going. One is to explore how university professors, who are preaching certain economics philosophies, are passing back and forth among the boardroom, the government and the classroom (including payments from financial institutions), without apparent regulations.
We also get a detailed account of how some of the main henhouse monitors have now foxed their way into key positions in the Obama administration, including Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geitner. This final blow is extremely effective.
“The rich get rich and the poor get laid off,” as the lyrics to “Ain’t We Got Fun” go. Some people certainly did go on a spree, which everybody else will be paying for for a long time. “Inside Job” isn’t the whole story of this sorry spectacle, but it’s a good start.
“Inside Job”
Strong documentary about the causes and effects of the 2008 financial meltdown, which makes some of the criminal mischief understandable for lay people. Director Charles Ferguson is especially good at getting people to sit for interviews who probably then regret sitting down.
Rated: PG-13 for language
Showing: Guild 45th
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